Tuesday, September 15, 2015

... in which the party deals with the evil character and encounters a NPC which they kill ...

I really need to do these write-ups immediately after the session and not a week later. But I'm always so exhausted from the craziness of it all. And honestly the playing is more fun than the writing in this case. However, a few things to share.

So, to sum up, 3 really important things happened.

First, Telgar was dismissed from the party. Numerous sessions ago Telgar had prayed to whatever god was listening to fix his broken hand. Unfortunately, someone was listening. The Prisoner of the World (a rather nasty god who was the focus of the Worldgod campaign) fixed Telgars hand for undying loyalty, which was readily handed over. As the sessions went along the player was eonderful in embracing his character's turn to darkness ... and the physical manifestations that went along with it. He served as a fantastic example to the other players how the Darkness rules (which replace alignment with penalties for mounting wicked moral choices) manifested itself physically. Maggots, claws, and all sorts of personality disorders.

The really fun part was watching the players struggle with kicking another player's character out of the party rather than deal with his shit (which was dragging everyone else down). It was awesome. The player confided in me several times that he was surprised Telgar was still alive, let alone in the party, so it came as no surprise when the "confrontation" happened. And, rather than go out like a little bitch, Telgar draw blood and cursed the party as he was captured and turned over the Nest Primus of the Eternal Raven. Telgar was "set free to fly" off the edge of the tower into the gorge where his dying breath was a vile curse that the World God would return and Devour the Unfettered Raven. It was epic.

Luckily, as we play HackMaster, everyone has a spare character ready to go.

The party then dealt with a cursed dryad and her minions (thorn slaves) and were almost completely wrecked by a TPK from the Dryad's awesome charm ability. Luckily - seriously luckily - a single NPC Henchman that was extraordinarily loyal to one of the characters managed to snap out one character. There was a discussion and then a battle then a shitstorm of awesome combat and magic. Blizzard in an underground forest vs. a cursed dryad and her thorn slaves as the rest of the party attacks the only character trying to save everyone? RPGs are the best. HackMaster rules. End.

In the end, the cursed dryad was killed, the legend of her heart and ancient kings and all sorts of good things came into play and suddenly the party had 5 humans who were from an ancient time now confused and thanking them for rescue. Then the fun thing. The party encountered the first Elf in the campaign ... in fact this entire campaign has been elfless and they are considered a rumor or legend at best.

The otherworldliness of the elf was expressed in his language which sounded like a chorus of singing voices. It made gestures that didn't make sense, and was enthused and curious and strange. The party had 2 dwarves in it ... so to establish some of the good old elf-dwarf hatred the elf ignored the dwarves as though he couldn't even see them (also adding to the strangeness). The dwarves thought the elf song sounded like bubbling, farting, and high pitched moaning. The elf, when one of the drarfs attemted to interact directly with it, was surpsied and patted the dwarf on the head as though it were an amusing child. Elf strangeness and elf-dwarf conflict Complete.

When the dwarves were introduced into the campaign they were tough and almost feral to the humans. The players are adding their own flair making playing a dwarf have a different feel than playing a human. Elf characters won't yet be allowed in the game (a few more events must take place) but when they come on board the strangeness should be well established.

Overall, a great session. A near TPK where noone actually died, great player interactions, the death of an evil PC, legends of Eradu are filtering through, and the first elf in ages. W00t